Law Courses

LLM provides you with a chance to gather specific knowledge about a particular field. This will help you provide specific aid to a company or organization. Apart from the specializations mentioned above, you can get an LLM in various fields. Some of the most popular courses are:

• Bankruptcy law
• Banking law
• Commercial law
• Criminal law
• Data privacy law
• Construction law
• Entertainment law
• Environmental law
• Financial services law
• Information technology law
• Insurance law
• Intellectual property law
• International law
• Military law
• Medical law

If you opt for a specialization in human rights law, your career path will require the following tasks:

• Drafting crucial documents with legal accuracy
• Partaking in the negotiations of crucial settlements
• Defending cases of violation of basic human rights
• Ensuring proper implementation of basic fundamental rights

Yes, apart from the overlap of criminal and civil law matters, the specialization fields also overlap. For example, a real estate lawyer might work with an insurance lawyer when there are discrepancies related to the death and transference of ownership. 

In India, the college or university that offers an online LLM degree via the Online Distance Learning or ODL methodology needs to have a Category I HEI accreditation. Only such universities can provide an online LLM degree that will be accepted throughout the nation.

Many foreign countries offer online LLM degrees and those are accepted globally. But, as law and matters related to jurisdiction are subjective to each country and state, it is better to opt for a degree in a specialization that is common to all places.

In order to become a lawyer by profession, you need to have a bachelor's in law or LLB degree. After completion of the degree, you need to clear the All India Bar Examination or AIBE to be eligible to practice law throughout the country. Apart from educational qualifications, you need to be a calm and confident person. As the law is about wits, you also have to be a quick thinker and rationally solve problems.

LLM offers you the opportunity to have in-depth legal knowledge about a specific field. Hence, the comprehensiveness of the topics can make the degree a tough subject, but if you opt for a specialization that you truly love, then the course becomes relatively easy as your interest stays piqued throughout the course work. 

Being an advanced degree, LLM graduates can join top positions even as freshers. The career trajectory depends on what you wish to gain in life professionally. If you wish to become a Judge, you need to practice law for a certain amount of time and clear the Judicial Services Examination or PCS (J)-Provincial Civil Service-Judicial Examination. If you wish to freelance, you can work as an attorney who can take up cases as per choice. But, you need to have a good network and verbal promotions for clients to come to you. Other career options after LLM are:

• Sub Magistrate
• Sub divl. Magistrate
• District Munsiff
• Legal officers
• Adviser in banks
• PSUs
• Legal Defense Officers
• Executive officers
• Criminal Lawyer
• Corporate Lawyer
• Associate Attorney

Becoming a lawyer is both professionally satisfying and mentally stimulating. Whether you are caring only about justice or want to help clients win cases, you can pursue law without a worry about not earning enough like the IT sector jobs like a data scientist or cyber security analyst. As legal matters rely on the country’s socio-political stance and how much they care about protecting human rights, not every country will pay a lawyer the same. What you earn in India as a medical lawyer will be nothing compared to how much you can earn in the USA.

Some of the countries that pay the most to lawyers are:

• Switzerland - USD 215,000
• Japan - USD 140,000
• United States - USD 120,000
• Canada - USD 105,000

An integrated law degree combines two bachelor’s fields of study. Primarily, you will be studying law. Along with law, you can pursue subjects related to science, commerce, or arts. The duration of the integrated degree is five years and comprises ten semesters. Professionally, the integrated degree opens up more career paths than a single law degree. For example, if you opt for a B.Tech. LLB degree, you can work as a software consultant or a legal analyst. 

A paralegal is a person who can offer legal advice but they are not formally educated in the legal field. A paralegal does not complete the undergraduate and postgraduate law degrees. They are not required to sit for examinations. Rather, paralegals take courses curated for a paralegal career. These courses usually are shorter than one year. The main jobs of a paralegal are:

• Interviewing witnesses
• Preparing correspondence drafts
• Gathering facts related to the case
• Conducting thorough research to build reference points
• Planning the management of a case

Medical law is gaining momentum as many cases related to medical malpractice surface across the globe. For quite a time, there was no clear understanding of what is considered malpractice in the medical field. Doctors often claim medical knowledge superiority when treating patients. But, the manner they opt to provide the treatment is often in contradiction to the human rights of the patient. Childbirth is one such case where the pregnant woman is treated in the worst possible way. As a medical lawyer, you will be helping such patients understand their rights and to prevent doctors from making rash decisions. 

The CLAT or Common Law Admission Test is a prerequisite for admission to the postgraduate law program. The syllabus for CLAT includes:

• Constitutional Law
• Jurisprudence
• Administrative Law
• Law of Contract
• Torts
• Family Law
• Criminal Law
• Property Law
• Company Law
• Public International Law
• Tax Law
• Environmental Law
• Labour & Industrial Law

International law or law of nations deals with the rules and regulations that bind nations. When people travel across borders to live or work, they are required to follow guidelines that will help them make the transition smoother. With international law, all such works and immigrations are dealt with. An example that involves international law is the Bhopal gas leak. While the incident occurred in India and the deaths were that of Indians, the leak was from a company that is owned by a corporation based in America. 

Legal pedagogy helps students of law to think and act in a manner that justice gets served. In law schools, mock trials are held for the same. Often older cases or ongoing trials are taken up and the students enact the proceedings. This helps them to know the legal aspects of the case along with the emotional and mental aspects. By getting a degree of LLM in legal pedagogy, a lawyer can become a teacher and guide students down the correct legal path.

A notary is a legal professional who has been commissioned publicly to be eligible to be a witness to the proceedings of documents being signed. A notary is also eligible to verify the photocopies of documents that you have submitted to the court or any company. When companies ask for notarized photocopies, they mean that a notary checks the copies, checks the originals, and attests that they are authentic. This will help applicants verify their identity.

Criminal law deals with activities that are considered to be crimes and offenders are subjected to punishment by imprisonment. A murder case falls under the criminal law. Any action that has been taken to cause grievous harm, intentionally, falls under the jurisdiction of criminal law. The average salary of a criminal lawyer is around INR 10 lakh per annum. The primary subjects that an LLM in criminal taw teaches are:

• Indian Penal Code
• Code of Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Jurisprudence

While there has been a buzz around the BCI not recognizing a one-year LLM degree, there are countries that have the prerequisite of the LLM course to be a one-year program. If you wish to work abroad but study in India, you can opt for the following colleges and universities whose degrees are globally recognized:

• Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat
• Indian Law Institute, Delhi
• Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai - LLM in Access to Justice
• TERI University, New Delhi - LLM in Environment & Natural Resources Law

Yes, law students can get placed directly from the campus. For example, the National Law School of India University, Bangalore ensures that the LLM students get a starting package of INR 8 lakhs per annum as they start their career.